Month: June 2017

I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear singing in my ear, The Son of God discloses.

A young lady I know started teaching children the Qur’an in the mosque as there was no male religious leader to do so. She was quickly advised by a man that she couldn’t do this because she was a woman.

Religion tells us that as a daughter of Eve, we cannot enter a mosque. Religion tells us that as a daughter of Eve we cannot hold a pastoral position for a woman’s voice must not be heard in the church. Religious traditions says that the daughters of Eve cannot pray or read Holy Scriptures during their menstrual times. Yet I would like to portray a very different picture of how God views a woman’s spirituality.

Imagine if you will a beautiful garden lined with fruit trees, radiant with a rainbow of blooms and fragrant with jasmine and cherry blossoms. A visit to the garden at any time is pleasurable and relaxing, soothes the tired brow. Now it is the cool of the evening, the garden’s peaceful paths stretch out before you. Into this beautiful garden enters Adam and Eve walking, talking, laughing; enjoying each other’s company. But wait! Who is that third figure? It is God walking with them, both of them. How would you like to walk in a garden with God as your companion? Adam and Eve were privileged to walk with him and commune with him, have fellowship with him. One as to wonder what topics he discussed, what spiritual truths he gave them, what loving advice he bestowed upon them.

But the point is that both Adam and Eve could walk with God, there was no distinction. How very unlike our religious intuitions today. I like God’s way better and I am encouraged and strengthened, empowered to know that God values the worship of both men and women, He wants to walk in the garden with the sons and daughters of His Creation.

Unequivocally yes, once upon a time, Adam and Eve were considered equal. In fact their lives together sound fantastical when you compare it to today’s perception of male and female statuses.

God fashioned Adam and Eve in His image, “God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He crated them.” Note that there is no distinction between how He created Adam and Eve. BOTH were created in His image, therefore both were created equal. Both Adam and Eve were created in His likeness. That means that each person had God given and God like characteristics; the abilities of high intelligence, moral character and emotions; and of course equal in spiritual desires for God for He wrote eternity on the heart of both male and female.

Moreover after God had created everything, he saw that EVERYTHING he had created was very good. That included Eve. Eve was very good!

And Eve was created to work alongside of Adam. The above verse says ‘let them rule’; it doesn’t say Let Adam, or let the man rule, but let them – that is both male and female. So Eve was Adam’s co-equal, his team mate, his partner in life.

This paints a harmonious picture of husband and wife working together, overseeing the animal and plant kingdoms. They walked hand-and-hand together, at one with each other and with God. They were equal.

The minute Satan deceived Adam and Eve (yes both of them) in the garden, Eve’s God-given position was destroyed. Satan was the first one to steal Eve’s rib and destroy her worth in society. He is the thief that stole her true identity. Since then, men have taken their lead from the devil and have not acknowledged that Adam and Eve were created equal. Eve was of the same flesh as Adam, from his rib so that she would be equal to him in all things. If a man does not respect the daughters of Eve, considering them his equal, then he has a mind after Satan and not after God for although God pronounced the curses, they were not part of God’s plan for the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

The result of sin in the world was a curse upon three; 1) Eve, who would suffer in childbearing and her husband would rule over her, 2) Adam who would toil, work hard to feed his family and provide them with shelter and 3) Satan who would be depicted as the lowest of animals and there would be enmity between the woman and Satan, between her seed and his seed. But the promise is that her offspring (that is Jesus Christ) will bruise his head. (At the end of time, the Christ will send Satan to hell.)

But the results of sin do not have to last forever and we can even bring a halt to it in our own lives. When men and women begin to follow Jesus, a renewal of the mind begins. “For there is neither Jew nor non-Jew, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The original order is restored and Eve is given back her rib, to be equal, to be strong and independent. That is how Christ sees it and that is what those who follow his teachings learn and begin to follow.